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| Deconstructing Indianness |
| Anoothi Vishal / New Delhi Aug 08, 2009, 00:18 IST |
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Laid up with flu — but not swine flu —this week, my attention was caught by the plight of a child, who, luckily, had not come in contact with any virus, unless you can call a set of battling parents that! The child in question was at the centre of a custody battle between a mother who wanted to raise him in Australia and a startlingly regressive father, who wanted the court to intervene because he was worried not about the influence of parental separation but the evil influence of foreign culture on his progeny. Luckily, the court threw out the petition, but the question that begs to be answered in the face of this, and other such contentions (as banning Sach Ka Saamna) is: what exactly is Indian culture? And why is it so sacred?
If you’ve watched Purab Aur Paschim or Namaste London or Balika Vadhu more recently, a couple of tenets become immediately clear, at the core of our “Indianness”. These are:
A deference to authority, patriarchy and age: I don’t watch Balika Vadhu regularly, but from what little I have seen, it seems that child bride Anandi’s parents-in-law are decent enough folks who don’t personally subscribe to the antiquated and often cruel codes of their society. So why don’t they stand up to the evil matriarch, Dadi sa? I happened to mention this to a couple of relatives who are regular fans of the serial. An uncle I had till then thought of as quite sensible and mild mannered tore his eyes off the screen to snap at me: “Why shouldn’t they, she is the eldest in the family?”
Unlike in the West, where people meet on more equal footing, Indians tend to equate age with wisdom and experience with statesmanship. We see this in the average age of our Parliamentarians, occasionally in the selection of our cricket team, and generally in the eagerness with which we “show respect” to elders by diving at their feet! There’s no harm in seeking good wishes but does this have to negate the questioning spirit of youth and its fresh approach? Alexander conquered half the world before he was 30. No, he wasn’t Indian.
“Modesty” of women: Like in any feudal or medieval society, the burden of upholding the family — and, therefore, national — honour falls on the women: Hindu, Muslim, rich or poor. Indian women (like Japanese women, whom Western grooms in earlier decades found attractive for their Asian subservience) are traditionally the keepers of Indian morality. The “right ones” don’t drink, smoke, have love affairs, get divorced, and if they work, have no control over monies. They are, instead, great mothers, religious fasts-observers, cooks, maids. Watch Sooraj Barjatiya or Manoj Kumar flicks and you get the drift...
Family ties: Family over the individual is an ideal most Indians stand by. There’s a huge nostalgia for the joint family system still, weddings and festivals are incomplete without the participation of cousins of cousins, and business deals often go through because someone in the extended family has facilitated them. In the face of non-existent state-support and systems, this is, often, the only support most Indians have. Yet, the family also pressurises, coerces, or kills for dowry!
Faith: Indophiles treasure the sense of spirituality that skims the surface of life in India, evident in our day-to-day living. And sure, this does have its advantages — even in cyberland. On the other hand, religion can exclude as much as it can include. In Namaste London, one of the high points of rustic Punjabi lad Akshay Kumar taking on the white sahibs is a speech, in which he points out that India is the only country where a Christian woman gave up power to a Sikh prime minister, sworn in by a (then) Muslim president. The constitution assures us a secular nation — and we are one despite Orissa, Gujarat and Imran Hashmi not being able to find a house in Mumbai!
Non violence, politeness, hospitality: Press people and they’ll tell you that these also define “Indian values”. Go on the roads of Delhi and you know the truth.
Bindi-bearers, sari-wearers, Bharatnatyam dancers, raga singers… They look good on Incredible India postcards. Perhaps, that’s all there is to our “Indianness”: a cosmetic culture.
(anoothi.vishal@bsmail.in)
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